Vehicles, such as automobiles, may be equipped with an instrument cluster. The instrument cluster may provide the operator with useful information for operating and driving the vehicle. The instrument cluster may indicate the speed of the vehicle, the revolutions-per-minute (RPM) of the vehicle's engine, a present state of the lighting, a present state of the windshield wipers, for example. The instrument cluster may employ mechanical gauges, digital displays, or a combination thereof to convey information about the status of the vehicle.
Instrument clusters may be embedded or placed in the dashboard of the vehicle behind the steering wheel. This ensures that the instrument cluster is in a line of sight for the vehicle's driver. Thus, the vehicle's driver may view the road while safely glancing at the instrument cluster to obtain useful information for aiding in the operation of the vehicle. The instrument cluster's placement is static, and thus fixed in a specific location. In a traditional installation, the instrument cluster is mounted low enough on the instrument panel or dashboard to avoid interfering with the drivers view of the road. In contrast, a HUD image is located above the dashboard and above the instrument cluster in a location where the driver views the road through the HUD image on the windshield or on the combiner.
Conventionally, instrument cluster size and location are constrained by “rim block”, which refers to the steering wheel blocking the driver's view of the instrument cluster. The vehicle's driver may adjust a seat or the steering wheel. However, in the process of adjusting the seat or the steering wheel to view the instrument cluster, a non-ergonomic or comfortable position may be realized by the vehicle's driver.
Transparent displays allow for the placement of a display in an area that conventionally has not been employed for this purpose. The transparent display may retain a significant transparent nature; however, can be equipped with an emissive display capability. The emissive display allows the transparent display to be implemented independent of a backlighting source. Accordingly, the transparent display may be capable of allowing light to pass through while being able to provide information through selective emissive lighting.